Pyre
|next = |image = IMG_6279.jpg |season = 2 |number = 8 }} "Pyre" is the eighth episode of the second season of The Expanse. Overall, it is the eighteenth episode. It aired on March 15, 2017. Synopsis tracks down signs of the protomolecule; control over the OPA collapses. Recap A survivor of the Ganymede attack wakes up among his fellow refugees. They're on a rescue ship in the Belt, and there aren't enough supplies to go around. The man, , is looking for his daughter, , who was at the clinic in Sector 4 during the attack. He sees a familiar face, , who tells him that Sector 4 was destroyed, implying the death of Mei. On Tycho Station, is in custody for helping escape with . grabs Diogo by the throat and leans on him for information, but Diogo is defiant. He tells Fred to go back to Earth, 'his real home'. demands to know how Dawes was able to escape. It seems that he had some kind of inside help, thus a traitor. When announces a message sent from Dawes to Fred, he views it openly to witness Dawes accusing Fred of using his control of the secret weapon to maintain control over Belters. Dawes uses this to insinuate that Fred retains his devious, authoritative and possesive Earther tendencies which are such an affront to the Belter people. The Belters, Dawes says, refuse to be under anyone's thumb. He pledges to hand Fred's secret weapon over to his fellow Belters.The plotline surrounding Cortázar doesn't appear in the original novels, nor , however a novella was created to retroactively inject him into the timeline, . As of the date of this edit, 2017-05, none of the books up to number 6 has the Rocinante crew or the Tycho crew meet specifically by name. On the rescue ship, Prax and Doris lament their refugee status. Anticipation is that it will take a generation to rebuild Ganymede. Doris mocks Prax that he is unsuited to the task and he must concede that reality. Doris proposes the notion that Mars could use a couple agritechs like them. Doris offers the suggestion that they could start over together and she affectionately rests her palm over his hand, but Prax withdraws from this gesture. On Tycho, secretly checks on the location of the protomolecule torpedo she hid out in space. She briefly considers sending it to Ceres, but reconsiders. this interpretation is very subjective and the situation could be explained in a much less devious manner. for instance, she could have simply been checking for the existence of the protomolecule on Ceres as a possible alternate in addition to what was stashed by the Roci crew and what might be found elsewhere In some unknown corner of Tycho, a group of Belters, including rabble-rouser , huddle together and watch replay of Dawes' earlier message to Fred Johnson. They seem especially interested in this weapon Fred kept from them. On the refugee ship, the Earth-bound and Mars-bound ships are declared to have arrived. After previously declining Doris' suggestion, Prax has a surprising but pleasant change of heart. He attempts to board the ship for Mars with Doris, but the surly Belter in charge won't let him since he's clearly not an Inner. They say goodbye through the door and it looks hopeful until the Mars-bound refugees are suddenly shot out of the airlock! "Inners wreck Ganymede," says the surly Belter who's managing the passenger evacuation while Prax looks on in helpless horror. Naomi and are checking the exterior antennae on Tycho for signal records of 's communications so they can find out where the protomolecule is. While they do, Drummer tells Naomi about how she and Dawes found Fred on Ceres and recruited him. Drummer tearfully expresses her loyalty to Fred. The women then find out where the protomolecule signal was coming from: Ganymede. Dr. Praxideke Meng ends up on Tycho station, still in a daze from what he has seen. He tries to report the crime the Belters on the refugee ship committed, but he doesn't even know the name of the ship he was on. There's nothing the doctor can do about it. Holden and Naomi put their heads together to figure out how the protomolecule ended up on Ganymede. They find a Protogen connection in one Dr. Lawrence Strickland, a pediatrician in a clinic on the station. They see a photo and identify one of the men with Strickland as a survivor on Tycho station: Dr. Prax Meng. While Fred and Drummer have a disagreement about refugee placement, Staz leads a group of Belters to storm the control deck, aided by Edin, who appears to be the Tycho crew member leaking information to Dawes. Fred and Drummer are taken captive as Staz demands the stockpile of nukes. Holden and Naomi find Dr. Prax Meng among the refugees and grill him about Strickland. Prax says Strickland is merely his daughter's pediatrician, though he also calls him a "gifted geneticist." Naomi takes Prax at his word, and in searching the footage from Ganymede, they see Strickland take Mei out of the clinic. Prax, realizing his daughter might be alive, begs Holden and Naomi to take him with them. Edin repeatedly fails to circumvent the security on the nuclear missiles. Staz threatens to kill people if Fred keeps stonewalling him. Staz prods Drummer to join them, but she refuses. So Staz shoots her in the gut! On the Rocinante, finds and tells him people need their help. Amos, remains detached, distant and dazed. After being prodded, Amos responds to Alex he doesn't feel like it. Alex pushes the issue triggering an angry retort from Amos about Alex not taking care of his family. This infuriates Alex who lunges aggressively to grab Amos. However, this escalates the situation to a dangerous level and the big man responds by dragging the Martian pilot and holding him precariously over the railing. Alex shocked and terrified, says Amos' name drawing him back to a more mindful presence and aware consciousness. Amos tells Alex not to make him fight "because who's gonna fly the ship?" insinuating the certain fatal outcome. The tension is broken when Amos hears an alert leading the pair to quickly deduce there's an active rebellion in progress on the station. Prax's conversation with Holden and Naomi is interrupted as the emergency situation is relayed to them. Amos comes out of a hatch, does a flip to and make an EVA walk with mag boot and gloves on the skin of the station. He uses a cutting torch to open a section of plating and to access a valve where he kills the oxygen to the control deck. As Staz, the rebels, and Fred all begin to pass out, Fred is able to knock Staz's gun away from him. Holden and Alex lead the charge onto the deck, where they capture the rebels. He tends to Drummer's wounds first but, as he leads her away, she grabs Alex's gun and shoots both Staz and Edin in the head. So there ends that uprising. In the aftermath, Amos welcomes Prax to the Roci, Holden and Naomi pledge not to keep any more secrets, and Fred tells Holden that if he leaves to search for the protomolecule on Ganymede without bringing back a sample, he won't be welcome back on Tycho. Holden expresses his doubts that Fred will even be in charge when he gets back. Cast Main *Steven Strait as *Cas Anvar as *Dominique Tipper as *Wes Chatham as *Florence Faivre as *Frankie Adams as *Shawn Doyle as *Shohreh Aghdashloo as Guest Starring *Chad L. Coleman as *Terry Chen as *Cara Gee as *Jared Harris as Co-Starring *Alden Adair as *Andrew Rotilio as *Dylan Brenton as Black Sky OPA Leader *Grace Lynn Kung as *Kevin Claydon as Edin *Leah Jung as *Tannis Burnett as Station Doctor *Ted Atherton as Dr. Strickland *Tim Post as Surly Belter Crewman Media Images File:FooBogusPlaceholder.png TheEXPANSE_S02E08_Pyre.mp4_00_01_56-00002.jpg Videos File:The_Expanse_2x08_Promo_"Pyre"_(HD)_Season_2_Episode_8_Promo File:THE_EXPANSE_Inside_the_Expanse_Season_2,_Episode_8_Syfy File:THE_EXPANSE_Making_Sense_of_the_Data_Syfy File:The_Expanse_Tycho_Station_-_Spacedock Notes * This episode marks the introduction of and her father, . * SPOILER In the books, Naomi attempts to cut off the oxygen from ''Behemoth'''s bridge in a similar matter, but is overridden by . Trivia * When Doris and the rest of the refugees were evacuated out of the airlock, they were seen frozen, floating outside the ship. While there is some dispute about what might actually happen on direct , there would likely be more swelling than is portrayed in the show.http://www.space.com/30066-what-happens-to-unprotected-body-in-outer-space.html Moreover, if such an explosion does occur, would be dependent on the elasticity or surface tension of the skin, that is how tightly the fibers latch on to each other. * Further proof of the phenomena of pressure differential, can be traced an application of said concept called , as in molecules tend to flow from areas of high concentration or pressure to ones that are lower, and the vacuum of space has a pressure of Zero in any unit of measure. The equations need to balance. * The showrunners, Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus, both co-wrote the screenplay for the dystopian film, , wanted to write a poignant storyhttp://www.theverge.com/2017/3/17/14957394/the-expanse-season-two-episode-8-pyre-refugees which touched on the . They saw the matter as an opportunity to examine the aftermath of displaced groups of people struggling to find safety in a place that may be indifferent or outright hostile to their needs. * Daniel Abraham, one of the co-writers behind the Expanse novel, wrote Caliban's War way before this crisis, said "It's also the Jews fleeing Germany in the ‘30s. So many of the individual beats that Ty [Franck] puts together in the larger world are drawn from history that it's kind of inevitable that there's a grim sort of evergreen quality to them.” *“Daniel Abraham once said of the Expanse that humanity packs for the stars,” Ostby notes, “but brings all their luggage and problems with them. I‘ve had that tattooed behind my eyelids since day one, so (in my mind) there is definitely an extrapolation of the Middle East refugee crisis — as well as the present tribalism — that is reflected in the Ganymede bit.” * The point of focusing on the issue of tribalism, is that people are complicated, there are neither purely good nor evil persons on either side of the conflict * A pyre is a pile of wood used to cremate or purify a body as part of a funerary rite. ** In some cultures, death is not merely an end, but a new beginning. ** There are several instances which illustrate the theme of renewal which were woven to the episode: **# The refugees are in search of a new home **# After , the man who is pivotal to understanding the protomolecule, is taken from 's custody by , Dawes challenges Johnson's leadership by stating that he failed to disclose the presence of the remaining protomolecule on the station. Dawes feels the only way to achieve self-determination is to ensure that protomolecule stays in Belter hands **# Holden and Naomi reaffirm their commitment together, by vowing to not to keep secrets from each other * The "spacing" of refugees who originated from the Inner Planets, can be viewed as mass sacrificial or funerary rite. * The Agricultural Domes on Ganymede is quite reminiscent of the structures of the Biosphere 2 facility located in Arizona, the Southwestern United States. Its purpose, was to recreate the environment of Earth in a closely-packed space, to determine the feasibility of long-term colonization in the hostile environs of outer space. Ganymede-agdome.png Harris.agribiome.jpg Other Points of Interest of Biosphere 2: Outside-biosphere2-legend.jpg Bio2-annotate.jpg Bio2-cutaway.gif Bio2-001.jpg Bio2-002.jpg Bio2-003.jpg Bio2-004.jpg Bio2-005.jpg * Season 2 Episode 8 - Pyre ;Possibly related * * * Ron Dougherty tour of Biosphere2 Cast credits on-screen File:S02E08-MidrollCredits 00.png|Chad L. Coleman as Frederick Lucius Johnson|link=Fred Johnson (TV) File:S02E08-MidrollCredits 01.png|Terry Chen as Praxideke Meng|link=Praxideke Meng File:S02E08-MidrollCredits 02.png|Cara Gee as Drummer|link=Drummer (TV) File:S02E08-MidrollCredits 03.png|Jared Harris as Anderson Dawes|link=Anderson Dawes (TV) File:S02E08-ClosingCredits 00.png Category:Season 2